FIGUEROA: One door closes, another opens for Mallinger

John Mallinger knows one thing he never wants to repeat: playing
the PGA Tour on conditional status.

"I know I don't want to play in that category again," he
said.

Conditional status essentially means part-time status, and that
means a lot of Monday qualifying, seeing your name on the alternate
list and never really knowing from week to week if you're going to
play or not. That's tough for any professional golfer who's looking
for consistency to help drive his or her success.

That turned Mallinger's season into a tale of two tours, as the
32-year-old Escondido High grad was forced to play the Nationwide
Tour just to get some reps in.

"I had never been in that category before so I didn't know what
to expect," he said. "It's probably one of the worst categories you
can have. You don't know when you are going to play and most of the
events you do play in are the smaller events so it's tougher to
retain your card. If I had to do it again, I'd probably play
Nationwide full-time."

Ironically, though, the Nationwide punched his ticket back to a
full-time gig on the big tour, as his six top-10 finishes,
including two runner-ups, landed him among the top 25 on the money
list and earned him full-time playing privileges on the PGA Tour
this year.

Funny how things work out.

"At first I wasn't thinking about getting my card that way,"
Mallinger said by phone Monday night from the Sony Open in Hawaii,
where he'll begin his season Thursday. "I just wanted to play and
try to get ready for the Fall Series."

After a 12th-place finish in the Wyndham Championship in late
August (his best finish of the year on the PGA Tour), Mallinger was
eager to keep the momentum going. So he entered the Nationwide's
Knoxville News Sentinel Open the following week. He finished
third.

He finished second the following week and two weeks later, he
again was the runner-up. His quick ascension on the money list got
him thinking — and eventually changed his plans.

"I started making so much money that I had to stay down there,"
said Mallinger, who ended up No. 14 on the money list with $237,779
in just nine events.

The best part weren't the paychecks, though. Mallinger, for the
first time all season, was in contention again, and playing in the
final group on the weekend can go a long way toward building
confidence.

"It was great to compete like that and feel the nerves again,"
he said.

He took those good vibes into the offseason.

"It's the first time in a long time I'm really excited for the
year," he said. "It's a bummer when you see your friends out there
playing well and you're not getting starts. The next thing you
know, it's April or May and you're not normally playing so you
start scrambling. It was just one of those (down) years.

"This year, I really feel like I'm ready to play. I know what I
can do and that's what excites me."